The premise of the book was that it was a satirical review of American events in the 1980's. Having been written in 1979, the events were of course fictional and most of the satire was actually directed towards the late 1970's. Some of the events from the book included:

Ted Kennedy's election to the Presidency in 1980, followed ten days thereafter by his resignation due to a botched surgical operation by Surgeon General Allan Bakke.